Editorial style contract

Principle

Editorial style is executable policy by locale and channel. Universal rules cover clarity and harm; locale profiles own grammar and convention.

Profile schema

Each profile declares locale, channel, owner, reading level target, formality, pronouns, capitalization, punctuation, numerals, dates, time, currency, percentages, units, contractions, abbreviations, emoji, links/email, lists, emphasis, product-name casing, inclusive-language rules, accessibility rules, examples, exceptions, and version.

Rules have stable IDs and severity (error, warning, advice). Exceptions must name scope, reason, approver, and expiry. Product UI, help, legal, notification, social, and developer documentation may extend—not silently contradict—the locale baseline.

Interface rules

Front-load distinguishing words; buttons name the action; errors state problem and recovery; labels remain stable; avoid directional language when structure can change; never encode meaning in emoji alone; expose full link purpose; respect screen-reader pronunciation and voice-control discoverability.

Lint contract

Lint deterministic rules only: forbidden forms, casing, spacing, numeric formats, unapproved emoji, inaccessible links, and lexicon terms. Subjective voice scoring remains review evidence and must show rationale. Golden fixtures contain accepted, rejected, and exception cases for every error-level rule.

Agent rule

Load locale + channel profile + product lexicon before writing. If profiles conflict or are missing, preserve meaning and flag review rather than applying US-English defaults.